Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Taken from IGN
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Hands-On
Does the Wii remote become Harry's wand? We've got the answer and first gameplay images.
by Micah Seff

April 11, 2007 - We recently got a rare treat at the IGN offices. Representatives from EA UK dropped by with the latest build of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the Wii, and let us sink our teeth into the substantial adventure. We sat down with the game's executive producer, Harvey Elliot, for a taste of what the game had to offer.

For this latest entry in the Harry Potter series, EA UK took a cue from Grand Theft Auto, astonishingly enough. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix actually has a whole lot in common with that beloved franchise. That's not to say that Harry is going to be beating down hookers with a baseball bat or anything. Rather, for this adventure, EA UK opted to implement the sandbox-style mission structure of the latest GTA games. Littered throughout the game are "discovery points," which function as milestone markers. These discovery points can be activated by completing various challenges, and reward the player with spell and level advancements.

Potter and friends are growing up.
The new sandbox structure of the game means that you can devote much of your playtime to scouring Hogwarts for every last mission, rather than progressing through the game's actual storyline. What this effectively does is bring Hogwarts to life in a way not seen before in a game. The digital version of the school is filled with recognizable elements from the fiction, and characters will be rewarded for seeking them out. Doing tasks like corralling a group of Snitches in a room and setting them loose on some levitating books will not only elicit a chuckle from Potter fanatics, but also will yield some discovery points.

None of this is to say that the game ignores the formidable storyline of the movie. On the contrary, the game's plot plays a supportive role to its celluloid counterpart, filling in the events between the climactic moments dealt within the film. Everything that happens in the game will have a lasting effect on the world. When designing the levels for the game, the developers had access to the film set and well as the design documents used for the movie. This made for a vision of Hogwarts that is more true to the movies than we could have imagined. The game designers opted to use the movie's vision of Hogwarts because it is more visually iconic. Walking through the castle as the myriad of portraits shift around and the staircases revolve is easily as impressive in the title as it is in the movies.

The Wii-specific controls for the game seem remarkably well put together. Once Harry's wand is drawn, the Wiimote can be used to directly control the spells you cast. Everything is handled through accelerometers; there is no pointing in the game whatsoever. Any of the game's spells can be cast quickly and easily, merely by a flick of the wrist. Thrust the Wiimote forward, and Harry will propel an object away from himself. Motion upward with both the Wiimote and nunchuk, and Harry will cause an object to levitate in the air.

Once you have an object floating, you can move the Wiimote around in 3D space to reposition it. This actually worked better than we had assumed it would, although it is not yet perfect. There are puzzles that require placing objects in specific places, which is somewhat irritating because of the inaccuracies involved in the motion controls. Despite this, it was a lot of fun to wave the Wiimote in the air and see Harry react in turn. Hopefully the spell system sees some refinement before the game's release because they were already enjoyable, even at this early state.

Visually, the game is quite obviously a port of the PS2 version. That's not to say that it looks ugly -- far from it -- but there are some aliasing issues, as well as some blurry textures. Still, the project runs at a fairly consistent 30 frames per second throughout and looks impressive nevertheless. It also supports 16:9 widescreen and 480p. From a visual design perspective, though, the game is quite striking. Hogwarts and its environs are brought to life flawlessly. We took the rare opportunity to turn on the game's debug mode and fly through the levels, and we came away really impressed. All of Hogwarts is connected seamlessly, creating a palpable sensation of being in the famed wizardry school. Technical shortcomings aside, the team at EA UK did a remarkable job of recreating Hogwarts and all of its many inhabitants.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix still remains an enigma to some extent. What we saw of the game really intrigued us, and left us most definitely wanting more; however, there is still a whole lot that we don't know about the title. Most of the game's missions are still a mystery at this point, but the brief taste we were privy to was certainly enjoyable. EA made some promises about a Quidditch mini-game and playable versions of Sirius Black and Dumbledore, but we didn't get a chance to scope them out yet. The game comes out sometime in June, prior to the film's release in theaters on July 13. Be sure to check back once we get our hands on a final build of the game.
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I don't think I will be picking this game up, but the wand does sound neat.

The Wii-specific controls for the game seem remarkably well put together. Once Harry’s wand is drawn, the Wiimote can be used to directly control the spells you cast. Everything is handled through accelerometers; there is no pointing in the game whatsoever. Any of the game’s spells can be cast quickly and easily, merely by a flick of the wrist. Thrust the Wiimote forward, and Harry will propel an object away from himself. Motion upward with both the Wiimote and nunchuk, and Harry will cause an object to levitate in the air.

I think that's the main draw for HP fans right there. I've never really gotten into the whole Harry Potter craze but i know for a fact my sister will happily shell out to be able to use the Wiimote for those spells

Sounds nice how its sandbox style, gives you a lot more freedom. With the harry potter world they could do quite a bit (cant see it happening).. its just that its a port that is really putting me off. i suppose i could pick it up for my nephew and see what its like then.

I just thought I'd add this recent update instead of creating a new thread.. I myself am a huge Harry Potter fan...hehe.

April 20, 2007 - EA is gearing up to release the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise to coincide with the release of the new feature film. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will chronicle the events of the fifth book and movie in the series, taking gamers into a more immersive Hogwarts than ever before. We recently chatted with the title's executive producer, Harvey Elliott, about what we can expect. Here's what he had to say.

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IGN: In The Order of the Phoenix, Harry, Hermione and Ron are growing up. How has that been reflected in the game?

Harvey Elliott: Well, for starters the obvious change is that they are visually older. We facial scanned each of the actors as they came off set to get up-to-the-minute data to ensure that they look exactly like the characters they portray in the movie. We also see their magic has improved and they are becoming more powerful wizards. And finally, with the vast majority of the cast reprising their roles from the movies, their characters really come out in the game -- as a result, they are definitely more determined and a little less prepared to listen to 'authority.'

Harry and friends are growing up. The screenshot above comes from the Wii version of the game.

IGN: How closely does the title follow the look and style of the upcoming feature film?

Harvey Elliott: One of our team mantras this year is to get absolute movie authenticity. Because such a large part of the movie is set in Hogwarts, we have gone to extreme lengths to recreate the locations from the movie in the game -- perhaps more than any movie game ever. It started with us working with the movie team to construct a 3D virtual Hogwarts -- getting their blue prints of the movie sets, going to the exterior locations with tape measurers and high-end digital cameras, and reviewing how these locations have been translated into the movies, poring over every detail. There were some areas described in the books that haven't yet been seen in the movies so we had some fascinating conversations between the teams to describe and then create those 'authentically.' Back in October, the experience of running around Hogwarts was surreal -- the castle was fully built, but the walls looked like architects' paper because we'd literally scanned the drawings in. Then we got a bit obsessive with the detail and took thousands of photographs on the film sets, to ensure that we captured the elements in every room, courtyard and corridor. As the movie has moved through production, we've constantly revisited the set to check, for example, how the lighting changed from concept to the final shoot and adjusted ours to match.

IGN: Would you say that Order of the Phoenix is darker than, say, Goblet of Fire or Prisoner of Azkaban?

Harvey Elliott: The storyline underpinning the game is definitely darker in places than Goblet or Azkaban, with Voldemort returning to power, but no one believing Harry or Dumbledore that he's back, and with senior wizards at the Ministry of Magic intent on burying the truth -- most noticeably Dolores Umbridge, who takes over the school during the school year and makes it a really uncomfortable place to be. It's up to Harry to find a way to convince everyone Voldemort has returned. When Harry returns to school he finds himself in a Hogwarts filled with students and teachers who think that he's been lying about the return of Voldemort, he is forced to physically hurt himself in detention, Professor Umbridge bans Quidditch, and then in the final explosive battles, one of the key characters dies. Having said all that, the focus of the game, like the movie, is entertainment. We have added a whole new layer of gameplay that balances some of this darkness by allowing the player to cast magic in and around the school not just to fight the evil Slytherins, but to uncover its many secrets around our open world Hogwarts.

IGN: Does the game at all explore Harry's boyhood crushes?

Harvey Elliott: Oh yes, we had fun recreating the turmoil of teenage relationships. Whenever Cho and Harry meet in the game, they fumble around for the right words, and most times Harry just fails to say the right thing and ends up feeling a bit stupid. And in the background, Ron is totally oblivious to the whole romance, occasionally making it worse for Harry by criticizing Cho for her sudden support of the Tornados Quidditch team just because they're playing well -- although at one point he does ask Hermione if she's noticed Harry acting a bit strangely around Cho. The script is really strong. And, of course, we feature the famous first kiss.

IGN: How is Hogwarts represented in The Order of the Phoenix? Is it an open world, are the level loads, etc.?

Harvey Elliott: Making it an open world was a huge task, but one the team have met incredibly well. We set the bar very, very high: to create an open world game that looks better than traditional linear games, and build it in a way that the player never has to pause for a load screen, and we don't change the architecture of movie Hogwarts just to make it easier for ourselves. We don't believe that open world has to mean poor graphic quality so we've pushed really hard to make it look and feel amazing. And this isn't just for next gen, we set the same high bar on PS2. I've seen so many people pick up the controller in the Great Hall, run up the Grand Staircase, pick a door (or secret passageway) to run through and two hours later they're still astonished that they're finding new rooms, new courtyards, new professors and students to talk to and of course, more secrets to discover. They just get blown away by the scale of the castle. Fortunately, we've added a magical navigation system that allows you to select your destination from the marauder's map and be led in the right direction by magical footprints until you start to learn the layout.

IGN: Are you satisfied with the new Wii controls? How are the Wii remote and nunchuk utilized?

Harvey Elliott: At some point in the development we just wondered whether Nintendo started their prototyping around the Wii controller by asking themselves "what would be perfect for a Harry Potter game?". I mean, seriously, it's a wand! So as the player waves the wand around, the game recognizes the gesture and casts the spell. It really feels like you're casting magic. If you want to set an object on fire, you simply flick the wand quickly from left to right, as if you were striking a match. If you want to levitate an object in the world using wingardium leviosa, just raise the wand and the nunchuk together and the object will lift, and then moving the wand around will move the object in the world. It's pretty much exactly how you would imagine it. And in combat it works the same way - if you want to knock your opponent down, just give them a shove, or to take their wand away, snatch backwards - it just feels great. Because the control is a wand in Harry's hand, we've even found that you don't need the sensor bar to cast magic, and instead only use it for optional fine-targeting, which just adds to your immersion in the game.
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